BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 311 



chapters themselves, is mention made of such names as those of 

 Galton, Bateson, Pearson, Biffen, Punnet, Sanders. The student 

 is referred to no modern English or American work on Genetics, 

 not even to De Vries' M Species and Varieties, their Origin hy Muta- 

 tion. " The brilliant work of the Third Report is ignored, and we are 

 told that " Mendel's law of segregation is however not of universal 

 application. There are hybrids which do not segregate, and also 

 others which segregate in different proportions/' The segregation 

 of hybrids would provide a Mendelian night's entertainment. 



The subject of manuring with artificial manures receives nine- 

 teen lines. Kainit is written "cainite" (p. 101). Phosphoric and 

 nitric acids are said to be amongst the chief manures. Basic slag is 

 referred to by the name in use in Germany, and it is stated with respect 

 to lime that " one need never fear a deficiency of that mineral in 

 agriculture." The bibliography ignores Rothamstead, and is silent 

 as to Hall ; but refers the student to Meyer's * Agricultural 

 Chemistry ' 1895. When omissions such as these occur in a 

 German work the Englishman says nothing ; but when they come 

 home to him in a translation he protests, and rightly protests. 

 Our tributary to the stream of physiological research may be small ; 

 but its place must be marked on any map published in this country. 



The actual translation is fairly, but not wholly, satisfactory. 

 Growing point (p. 285) instead of growing-point is not a happy 

 innovation. " The inward significance of manuring" (p. 101) 

 illustrates a tendency to the use of unnecessary words. " Trans- 

 formation of form " (p. 1) is not elegant. " Vines treated with 

 copper " (p. 88) should probably read w treated with a copper 

 salt," since it appears from the next sentence that it is a solution 

 which is used ; past and present tenses rub shoulders uncom- 

 fortably in the sentences which follow. More serious objection 

 must be taken to the employment of the word metamorphosis as 

 the equivalent of the German " Foruvvvechsel." The word is 

 already heavily weighted with meaning, is rich in historical asso- 

 ciation, and is too old to bear new meaning for the expression of 

 which good words already exist. A reckless use of italics — as many 

 as seventeen per page — is a feature of the book ; adjectives seem 

 to be specially, though not exclusively, favoured in this respect. 



Frederick Keehle. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dtc. 



The Editor, Mr. Carleton Eea, is to be congratulated on the 

 appearance of the Transactions of the British Mycologtcal Society 

 for the season 1906 (Worcester, 1907, pp. 133-189, 3 coloured 

 plates). He opens w r ith the usual account of the Autumn Foray, 

 which this year took place in Epping Forest. The season, 

 previous to the 1st October, had been a very dry one; but the 

 week's examination yielded no fewer than three hundred and thirty 

 species of fungi, and of these fifty were additions to the list for 

 Epping Forest. The President, Mr, Arthur Lister, F.R.S., begins 



